Evanston: flown
Evanston: flown
Last night was to be the young dove’s first alone in the nest, or so I thought.
At about 9:00 p.m. movement in the planter box attracted my attention, and I went to the glass door and saw one of the adults beak to beak with the squab, feeding him. Not wanting to interrupt, I stepped back.
The rain had stopped a few hours earlier, but when I went to bed I could see that the adult bird had gone, and I thought of the little bird, sitting there for the first time exposed to the vastness of the sky, small, defenseless and alone.
When I awoke this morning the nest was empty. it is in the left pot in the above photo.
I opened the glass doors and stepped onto the Juliette, leaned over to see if there was a small bundle of feathers on the condo entryway forty feet below. There was not.
Doves leave the nest between ten and fifteen days. Today the now fledgling is eleven or twelve days old.
I wonder what it was like, to climb from the nest onto the railing and launch into air; and how did the adult tell him it was time to go?
According to what I read, the male will continue to feed the fledging for another week or two.
I wish the young dove a life free from cats, hawks, hunters and politicians.
We have been watching the doves since Carol discovered the under-construction nest four weeks ago. I feel their absence.
Ahh, they grow up so quickly.
Thursday, August 5, 2010